Atsuke Makura
"What good would a sword be if no one ever stood back and took the time to wield it effectively? By the same token... what good is God's Power if none bother to test the limits of it's potential?" :-Atsuke Makura Atsuke Makura was the chief elder of the Mitsukai and the forerunner in the creation of the seven Mitsukai Arts. These were seven force forms designed specifically to test the limits of the force's power. From his birth and all throughout his lifetime, Atsuke had always shown a love for science and the progression of knowledge. His great intelligence and wisdom found him quickly rising to the position of Elder among the Mitsukai at the young age of 55 (young for a Mitsukai at least). During his years as an Elder Atsuke became very interested in "God's Power" (the Mitsukai name for the force) and its possible uses for war and defense. He spent many years creating and perfecting a martial art that used God's Power that he called Shadow Arts or Shadow Form. In his thirst for knowledge about God's Power Atsuke began to experiment with the Blade of Balance. The Blade was considered by many to be an incarnation of God himself and thus such experiments would be considered Heresy. His close contact with the blade would eventually drive him mad and lead to his execution for heretical practices in the year 1,010,253 BBY. Biography Early Life Atsuke was born in the Mitsukai village on the planet Tishi in the year 1,010,703 BBY. His father was a logger and would often take young Atuske with him into the forests to help with his work. Atuske loved the wilderness and nature, he would often venture off by himself and meditate alone in the forests that surrounded the Mistukai village. His great intelligence led his father to seek a better life for his son then that of a lumberjack, and so he enrolled Atsuke into the Temple Academy. The Academy was where the greatest of Mistukai scholars were trained to become Temple Guards and even Elders. Atsuke graduated from the Academy at the top of his class at the age of 19, which made him at the time the youngest ever to graduate. The Temple of Balance was the grand center piece of the Mitsukai village which housed and protected the Blade of Balance. The Blade was believed to be an incarnation of God by the Mitsukai and it was the job of the Temple Guards to keep it safe. Atsuke spent many years as a Temple Guard, not only serving to protect the Temple but the village as a whole. The Kumori Wars Also living on Tishi were a tribe of Humanoid sentients much like the Mitsukai only without wings and a very low rate of force affinity. Their tribe called themselves Kumori (meaning shadow). During Atsuke's time as a Temple Guard, the Elders in power had taken many steps to keep the Kumori away from the Mitsukai's sacred village for fear of them attempting to steal the Blade of Balance. In the year 1,010,681 BBY the Kumori tried to do just that orchestrating a massive invasion of the Mitsukai's country. It was during this war that Atsuke met a young man named Kenshi Samasu. Partnered together through many campaigns, Atsuke and Kenshi became very close friends. Atsuke took it upon himself to tutor the young Mitsukai in the ways of the force or "God's Power" that he had invented himself during his time at the academy. :"Those so called 'Scholars' at the academy only teach you how to push and pull. There is so much more that can be done with this power though. The fools... they're afraid. Afraid of the potential in all of us to do great and terrible things." :-Atsuke to Kenshi teaching him Shadow Arts Shadow Arts were the name Atsuke had given to his unique style of combat using God's Power. By combining the force's abilities to affect both the mental and physical capacities of an opponent, Atsuke was able to "Make illusions real" as he would describe it. Using the Shadow Arts was about deception and misdirection. A tactic that made Atsuke and Kenshi both infamous and feared among the Kumori and proved very useful in situations where the two young Temple Guards may have otherwise been killed. During the war Atsuke lost his right eye in the midst of an intense battle in which he recieved a katana blade across his eye and down his cheek. Elder Years In the year 1,010,648 BBY at the age of 55 Atsuke was chosen to become one of the Elders of the Mitsukai village for his heroism during the wars. This made him also the youngest person ever to be chosen as an Elder. Atsuke's love for nature and science along with his belief that fewer Mitsukai would have died in the wars if only a greater knowledge of God's Power had been obtained led him to begin his life long research into the limits of God's Power. Atsuke always kept a low key on this research however for fear of being charged with heresy. As of when he first became an Elder, Atsuke's 'Shadow Arts' consisted of only three main techniques. * Shadow Clone * Konisou (Soul Transfer) * Moonlight The Shadow clone created an illusionary copy of the user that was made real through precise applications of telekinetic power. Konisou or Soul Transfer offered the ability to slip between spatial dimensions that were still not very well understood by the Mitsukai. Moving through these dimensions could give the illusion that the user had teleported. And finally Moonlight was an illusionary technique that used the force to completely dominate an opponent's mind. Using these three techniques as a base, Atsuke created many more techniques and perfected his new martial art that used God's Power as its weapon. He called it the Shadow Form. After many many years of perfecting and fine tuning the other elders in the temple had grown curious about Atsuke's work. By this time Atsuke was the eldest among the Elders and as such he decided it was finally safe to share his work with the others. Kenshi, Atsuke's former pupil, was among them. Together with Atsuke the six other elders each created a martial art of their own using God's Power. Atsuke had hoped they would be the first of many and would teach these powers to the new generation for the continued defense and prosperity of the Mitsukai. Little could Atsuke know that his new use of the force was actually a perversion known to us today as the Dark Side. Family Life At the age of 400 (middle aged for a Mitsukai) Atsuke met and fell in love with a woman named Akira. The two were married for almost 40 years before having their first son who was named Luster. Atsuke adored Luster and took to teaching him about science, nature and God's Power at a very young age. The two were inseparable, it wasn't until Luster was about 11 years old that he started to notice a change in his father. Despite Akira being pregnant with their second child, Atsuke spent longer and longer hours alone at the temple. He had began to neglect his family and started to display some unsettling behavior. Descent into Madness Atsuke's lust for knowledge and power was never satisfied. It was one of the qualities that had made him such a strong and wise leader, but also it would be the ultimate cause of his demise. Atsuke's research into the nature of "God's Power" had led him to the conclusion that it had been generated by life and only life. This however caused a bit of a problem. The Blade of Balance, the holy relic that the Mitsukai consider a god itself was still by all of Atsuke's estimations, just a sword. However, if this were so it could not account for the massive amount of power the blade housed. Atsuke's only conclusion was that the blade was not a blade at all, but a living organism. In order to test his theories and hopefully better understand God's Power, Atsuke began conducting experiments with the blade itself. A practice that would surly mean execution if anyone were to find out. During his experiments Atsuke began to hear what he believed to be the blade speaking to him. A phenomenon previous elders had claimed to experience but Atsuke had dismissed as impossible. It wasn't long before Atsuke began to feel that the blade had taken control over his consciousness and was able to alter what he thought and how he felt. Increasingly Atsuke isolated himself. The other elders as well as his family had over heard him having lengthy conversations with no one at all. It wasn't long after this that the other elders had decided that Atsuke was becoming a liability. And after they had discovered the truth about his experiments with the blade, Atsuke's fate was sealed. Dragged from his home in the middle of the night, Atsuke was given a breif trial for the charge of heresy in front of the Temple of Balance. Atsuke had no parting words as he was executed by beheading for his crimes.